Maryland, February 12–A cohort of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members in Prince George’s County in Maryland have been working in a new coalition sponsored by an immigrants’ rights organization to address police misconduct. A town hall meeting was held that included Latin and Black victims of police brutality in collaboration with ICE (U.S immigrations and Customs Enforcement). One particularly horrible case was described by “Jorge,”a “Dreamer.”He said, “local law enforcement’s job is [supposed] to keep us safe. Their job was to keep my mother, who was once a victim, of domestic violence safe,instead they arrested her,and told her she has 60 days to leave my sister and me alone in this country.”Jorge’s mother was detained by a Prince George’s County Sheriffs officer while on her way to work. The officer said Jorge’s mother was speeding but Jorge pointed out “My mother’s driving makes other drivers go around her because it’s going so slow. I believe that the officer was racially motivated to pull my mother over.”A petition calling for passage of “The Racial Equity in Policing” bill by the County Council is being circulated, and Council members are being lobbied.The bill includes the following points: Prevent any cooperation between Prince George’s County police and ICESupport police accountability through the mandatory use of police body camerasSupport an independent investigation with prosecutorial power anytime there is a death or serious trauma at the hands of the police Ban the use of internal, extra-judicial gang database. A strength of this emerging movement is the multiracial, multi-generational character of participants in the effort. But there are weaknesses in the group’s position,which holds that we can address the mistrust between law enforcement and workers by passing reforms that help deepen our engagement with police. This approach misses the fundamental role of the police in a capitalist society – intimidate, divide, and terrorize the working class to ensure maximum profits for the capitalists. Some participants in this coalition who have been reading Challenge are interested in this analysis and realize that it means we need revolution, not just working with politicians and police. We will continue to work on individual cases of brutality, of illegal police-ICE collaboration and of unjustified maintenance by the cops of a secret “gang list” while continuing to look towards a revolutionary future.

Article originally appeared on The Revolutionary Communist Progressive Labor Party (http://www.plp.org/).